The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-07-09
COOKS AND COOKERY.
Extravaganza of the Ancients in Matters
Pertaining to the Table.

Pertaining to the Table.
1t has been somewhat disdainfully
said that many of our public officials
are paid salaries which are but the
fractional part of those enjoyed by
cooks of high standing in their profess
sion. That may well be, for chef of
genius is rare and can pertinently quote
to any epicure who complains at such a
relative scale of prices, Adelina PATHS
reply to her manager, when he objected
to the price she demanded for number
of concerts: But that is more than
the President of the United States gets
for year" Every WE'LL" pouted the
spoiled diUo, "get the President of the
United States to sing for you, thenH'
What gourmand would be quite happy
over the cookingof an unframed alder
man, even if that official would be con-.
tent on reduced salary? Extravagant
as we may be in the kitchen, we are less
so than were the ancients. In Burnley's
''Romance of Invention" from which
we take what follows, we are told that
Marc Antony, for example, was so
pleased with a repast prepared by q
cook, for Cleopatra, that he presented
the man with whole town. The Ro-
mans nursed their palates to such an
extent that the second hunger" was
cultivated as science. Apicius, the
chief astronomer of his time, delivered
lectures on the best modes of exciting
hunger. and established ''school of
gluttonyn Vitellius allowed his cook
about fifteen thousand dollars q day for
marketing purposes, and Lucullus once
paid five thousand dollars for little
dinner for three. Heliogabalus was SO
prodigal that he had his peas sprinkled
with grains of gold, his rice mixed with
pearls, and his beans with amber. Ii
berius had an economical little habit of
crushing precious stones, and mixing
them with wine, as had also Cleopatra
At no period of history has there been
such indulgence in the pleasures of the
table as at Rome,i in the latter days of the
empire. The livers and tongues of night
ingales, rhinoceros' eyes, the tender
parts of peacocks, and the brains of
pheasants and thrushcs were among the
ordinary dishes on the luxurious Roman
bill of fare.
The Old Testament has not furnished
many items to the student of cookery,
though it is said that learned rabbi
spent fifteen years in trying to discover
the name of the cook who made Esau's
pottage. During the barbarism of the
Middle Ages, plain and coarse food
was the order of the day in
Europe, and when costly dainties be-
gan to be in vogue, they appeared first
in the monasteries. The table of the
monks of Canterbury consisted daily of
sixteen elaborate courses, and so great
was the fame of the pious fathers cook
ing, that the Lord Abbot was generally
asked for the loan of his cook when any
great banquet was to be prepared. 1t
was not until the seventeenth century,
however, that artistic cooks sprang into
existence and repute, and the Italians
and French began to lead their neigh
bors in the culinary art. The French
have always been most enthusiastic
gournaets, as one might imagine from
the speech of u Partisan in regard to 4
sauce invented by countryman:
"With sauce like that man might
eat his own father!' The high esteem
in.which cooks may be held is attested
by the remark once made by French
judge to the astronomer Laplace: II
look upon the invention of a new dish
as far more interesting event for hui
mainly than the discovery of a new
star, inasmuch as we have already stars
enough and to spare. but we could
never have too MANY dishes. ~ YOUTHS
Companion.